Students discuss the different pressure put on by northern high schools.
Both women attended the Alzar school, which focuses on outdoor education and leadership-different from a typical classroom setting.
Nicole Stein is a New Jersey native that has experienced many different schools. While many struggle to relocate and change the environment of high school, Stein enjoys meeting new people and seeing different teaching styles. Her current school is in Montclair, New Jersey and is the largest school she has attended.
“My school pressures us into thinking school should be the only thing we think about.”
Last year, Stein and Kent attended the Alzar School that has reshaped their view on education. The Alzar school focuses on outdoor education while striving for high academics. Students would learn outside while taking AP level courses in the wilderness.
Stein discussed how throughout her high school experience there has been little to no pressure put on college. She finds little talk about college even though she is a junior, a time where students at Providence Day tend to begin their intensive discovery of universities.
After her experience at the Alzar School Stein has focused less on earning the perfect grades for college but more on the importance of learning and time spent with peers.
Brynn Kent, a senior at Middlebury Union high school in Vermont agrees with the fact that her northern school does not pressure students into college. Kent is setting her academic goals high by dreaming to attend Colby College in the fall of next year. She truly enjoys learning and she believes the case is because she had never been forced to learn something she does not like.
The schools she has attended have focused on independent learning and finding what you truly love, not on the final grade.
There is a noticeable trend that Northern Schools focus less on college than southern schools, which ultimately puts less pressure and stress on students. This leads to higher test scores and lands them at higher level universities. So we ask the question why are Providence Day students stressed?
Image of Brynn Kent in Chile, courtesy of the Alzar School
Image of Nicole Stein in Chile, courtesy of the Alzar School.
Image of author in Idaho, courtesy of the Alzar School.
Stress in the Northeast:
Nicole Stein and Brynn Kent
FEATURES
By Jane Vaughan
The Charger, December 2017
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